Watching big mammals in Kuhmo
On the 8th of July we left towards Kuhmo with Hanna and her sister Elissa. The day was very hot but the air-conditioner in our car made the driving pleasant. So we didn’t stop at all on the way and in Kuhmo we just found a good place to put the tent up in Alanne and went to sleep.
On the 9th of July we woke up at 7 a.m. when it started to be too hot in the tent. I had heard a Three-toed Woodpecker, a Wryneck and some flocks of Common Crossbills during the morning. After a short walk in the forest, we continued toward Kuhmo centre. We still drove to Lentuankoski where we walked a little before went to the centre to do some shopping and eat before we continued east to Viiksimo.
At 3 p.m. we parked to Boreal Wildlife Centre. After an hour waiting and resting we left with a guide and 10 Swiss photographers to the hides. The Swiss had been there already a couple of nights so they went to the small hides and we got a big hide for us three.
It was extremely hot in the hide but luckily there were already some Ravens and gulls to photograph and after only an hour waiting the first 3 Brown Bears came to feed. And right after they had left back to the forest, a Black Kite came to soar above us. And again after 30 minutes another small bear came and again 30 minutes from that, a White-tailed Eagle came to perch to a top of a pine-tree behind the bog. So there was really a lot to see!
The temperature was rising so we had to drink a lot, but luckily when the evening got later the bears got bigger! The White-tailed Eagle landed a couple of times to the ground so we managed to get good pictures of it too. After a couple of middle-sized bear finally at 10:38 p.m. the first big bear came, and it stayed for more than an hour.
The night was still hot and surprisingly quiet. There was a bear visiting about every hour, but in the morning they were all gone. Only gulls and a couple of Ravens were eating the last pieces of meat. Unfortunately we weren’t lucky to see any Wolves that had been visiting the place during the week. But the nature is unpredictable; we weren’t in a zoo…. Maybe next time?
At 7 a.m. the guide came to pick us up and soon we were in the centre where we heard that Swiss had seen only some bears too.
Pretty soon we started a long way back home but we decided to drive the first 100km along the small roads and see some old forests in Elimyssalo. The roads were very bad but we saw some nice places and a male Capercaillie and a young Hazel Hen too.
We also drove along Lieksa road and stopped in Eno where we tried to find an Arctic Warbler without luck. Then we drove straight to Parikkala where we went to eat and then to sauna to Tarvaslampi. Finally in the afternoon we were at home and went straight to sleep.
After 14 hours sleep I had to go to work. In the evening of 11th of July we did a short field-trip to Saari. There had been several Pacific Golden Plover in Finland so we tried to find one too. But after all we didn’t find any good looking fields at all. Only birds we found were young Long-eared Owls, Corn Crakes and an Ortolan Bunting.
J.A.